Community Week is a highly anticipated event in the British Land calendar – this year did not disappoint. Across the UK from Canada Water, Paddington, Edinburgh to Yorkshire, we connected with new and existing community partners doing incredible work addressing local needs.

Community Week exemplifies our approach to creating long-lasting social impact in our communities, further integrating our staff and places into our local communities. In addition to this, we actively support and encourage our staff to engage in expert volunteering. We provide our colleagues with training and time for expert volunteering roles, providing them the opportunity to make a positive social impact and develop key skills.

Our Community Week committee led the volunteering drive, involving over 350 of our colleagues. Together, we contributed over 1,850 hours supporting over 40 community projects. This involved sharing professional skills and experiences, working together to maintain and uplift green spaces, and arranging summer gatherings for supported living schemes and social clubs.

In line with our social sustainability strategy, our place-based approach supports local community partners. At Meadowhall, our team supported a local tea dance for elderly residents and packed vital food parcels at Burngreave Foodbank, amongst other activities throughout the week. Across London, we supported 37 community projects local to our four campuses: Broadgate, Paddington Central, Regent’s Place and Canada Water development in the heart of Southwark.

For our colleagues, Community Week provides a great opportunity to step away from their day-to-day, get to know colleagues from different areas of the business and most importantly, familiarise themselves with an organisation that is addressing key social issues affecting the communities around our places. A total of 43 colleagues stepped forward to coordinate the programme, giving them the opportunity to develop leadership and project management skills.

“Participating in Community Week as a Lead Volunteer was a highly rewarding experience and an opportunity that I would encourage other colleagues to participate in. It was a great way to get a thorough understanding of the unique social challenges communities that we work with face, and how corporate partners can provide support. It was also a great way to build leadership skills and get to know coworkers from across the business in a different environment.”

Mariam Hussain, Senior Insight Analyst and Lead Volunteer for the Marylebone Project activity

For the community projects, be it a charity, school or social enterprise, our volunteering provided support in numbers that ensured a large amount of physical work was completed. Morale was boosted with energetic and friendly volunteering teams, as well as professionals who utilise their own experience to enrich the employability and business acumen of others and fill critical skills gaps.

“On behalf of everyone at the Limehouse Project, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers from British Land for their invaluable contribution…[their] ideas, strategic insights, and hard work have resulted in a set of marketing resources that will effectively communicate our services to the community.”

Farida Yesmin, Director at Limehouse Project

By delivering our Sustainability strategy - Greener Spaces. Thriving Places, Responsible Choices - we are committed to making a long-lasting, positive social impact in the communities in which we operate in, by collaboratively addressing local priorities. We are already looking forward to Community Week 2025.